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Snarf Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Hyphen/Dash Word Problem
What's with Word and dashes when used parenthetically in sentences? Do you know? Take this for example:
The uninitiated – the peasants - will do our bidding.
Why isn't the second dash as long as the first one? It looks like a hyphen rather than a dash. It's annoying. Does that look okay? Is that normal? Is Word supposed to do that for some English writing reason that I don't know about? And what's really weird is that it doesn't do it every time, only sometimes.
Thanks.
The uninitiated – the peasants - will do our bidding.
Why isn't the second dash as long as the first one? It looks like a hyphen rather than a dash. It's annoying. Does that look okay? Is that normal? Is Word supposed to do that for some English writing reason that I don't know about? And what's really weird is that it doesn't do it every time, only sometimes.
Thanks.
Top answer
Snarf Why isn't the second dash as long as the first one? It should be. Snarf s that normal?
- Snarf Why isn't the second dash as long as the first one?
- It should be.
- Snarf s that normal?
- Is Word supposed to do that for some English writing reason that I don't know about?
- No and no.
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3 Answers
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SnarfWhy isn't the second dash as long as the first one?It should be.
Snarfs that normal? Is Word supposed to do that for some English writing reason that I don't know about?No and no.
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The second dash should be just as long. If you're typing this in Word and you're speaking of their auto-format feature where it changes it to an em dash make sure you are not typing a space after peasants. There should not be any spaces. It should then format correctly.
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Snarfwhat's really weird is that it doesn't do it every time, only sometimes.Sounds like a bug in their software.
CJ
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